'Our Story', by volunteers at the Shakespeare Hospice

'Our Story' is a short film produced by the Shakespeare Hospice and their volunteers with the aim to raise awareness on childhood and teenage bereavement. It has recently been entered into the Charity Film Awards, and it would be much appreciated if you could take a minute out of your day to vote for 'Our Story' and spread the word.

[Ingrid is Kevin's youngest daughter. Kevin Ash was killed in a motorcycle accident whilst testing in South Africa over five year's ago, in January 2013. The Shakespeare Hospice, in Stratford Upon Avon where the family live, has provided support to her and the rest of the family. Ingrid has volunteered to work there to help others who have also been bereaved. They have made the film shown here to help raise awareness of the issues of bereavement in children of school age, and it has been nominated for an award.]

Kevin Ash Fund eBay listings

Please come and look at the items I am selling on eBay to help fund the girls' continuing education.

Motorcycle clothing mainly, and some bike bits, including panniers.

Please, please, please follow me (tooweeler) and watch the items and buy some, or at least make an offer. It all helps to make more space in the garage and clear stuff I really don't need.

Compared to engines, suspension, brake systems and electronics, a bike frame seems relatively simple. It must be rigid enough to hold a swingarm and forks in place, resist the efforts of a rider, an engine, the ground and physics to twist, bend or deflect it, and be durable for the lifetime of the bike. Ideally it's also light, easy to process in production, cosmetically pleasing and cheap.

But as long as the first two requirements are met, different bikes have different priorities and thus there is no single perfect frame design, which is why we get anything from round, oval, square or rectangular tubes, pressed sections, extrusions, cast or forged sections, usually in combination and made from steel or aluminium alloy (although titanium, magnesium, carbon fibre and even fresh air have been used – the German Windhoff in 1927, 1976 Quantal Cosworth Norton and 1992 Britten V1000 were frameless, with the engine connecting headstock and swingarm. And, arguably, Ducati's Panigale, BMW's flat twins and hub-centre bikes like Bimota's Tesi and Yamaha GTS1000 are frameless). With hundreds of frame permutations over the years, it's rare to hear of a new one.

But a Lancashire's CCM is doing something different: the new GP450 Adventure, MCN's group test winner, has a frame held together by glue (although they prefer 'adhesive', and call the process Bond-lite).

With traction-controlled streetbikes making more power than a ten-year old World Superbike, and with pressure to reduce emissions and fuel consumption, where do engines go from here?

One answer is more torque. For a given size of engine it could be just as powerful as a bigger engine but at lower rpm, thus cleaner and more efficient – more time to fill the cylinders, longer burn, better scavenging, lower mechanical losses. Be nice to use, too.

But since modern bike engine architecture was established in the mid-80s, the peak torque from a given capacity has remained static. A 1992 Suzuki GSX-R1100 N made...

The relationship between gear ratios, torque, thrust and 'retuning' is never an easy one

Honda's new CTX1300 is, at first glance, technically unremarkable. It is, essentially, a stripped-down, half-faired Pan European with sharper steering, a wider rear tyre, a stereo and, somehow, more weight. It has the same 1261cc transverse 90° V4, 'retuned' for more midrange.

But the spec shows this is more, or less, than a retune: a stock Pan makes 125bhp at 8000rpm and 92 lb.ft at 6000rpm. Honda say the CTX makes 83bhp at 6000rpm and 78 lb.ft at 4500rpm. That's a massive 40% less peak power and 16% less peak torque!

Doubtless the curves are reshaped, but it's still a big deficit. Why Honda has done this will be revealed...

Indian’s new Classic, Vintage and Chieftain share engines and frames, differing only in trim and styling. Yet while the Classic and Vintage have identical chassis spec, the Chieftain has different numbers: 61mm less wheelbase, 4° steeper rake angle and 5mm less trail. If you were to judge which Indian was sportiest on spec, you’d say the Chieftain. Which is odd, because...

Do Yamaha’s new MT-09 and MT-07 really use R1-style crossplane technology?

Lots of people get cross when Yamaha claim their new MT-09’s 850cc inline triple and MT-07’s 689cc parallel twin are crossplane engines. How can they be? They don’t have enough pistons.

The crossplane idea works like this: in a conventional inline four the pistons move in pairs, two up, two down. When the middle pair are at top dead centre, the piston either side is at bottom dead centre. They fire evenly, every 180°, 1-2-4-3. This layout has perfect primary balance because piston pairs move in opposition, but....

For a manufacturer, technical challenges aren't all cutting-edge electronics and active suspension. And it's easy to dismiss cruisers like Triumph's new Thunderbird Commander and Horizon LT as low-tech and simple to design. But they have their own challenges like, for example, making a comfy seat. It sounds easy: make it comfy. But there's more to it than that....

Making one engine fit many roles is all about getting the timing right...

What’s the similarity between Ducati’s 2009 1198 superbike, the Multistrada, Diavel and new 1200 Monster? Yes, they share versions of the 1198cc Testastretta engine. The versatile V-twin has gone from sportsbike to adventure bike to power cruiser to naked in just five years.

You’d think their disparate riding dynamics couldn’t be achieved with the same engine. So how does the 1198 Testastretta fit such different roles?....

If you'd like to make a donation then you can use the PayPal 'Donate' button below which will allow you to donate from your PayPal account, or via credit or debit card. A small percentage (about 3.4%) will be retained by PayPal for the service.

Kevin's family have been touched by the generosity and messages of support from people using the website and would like to express their gratitude to those who have contributed in any way.

The donations keep coming in, thank you so much, and the family especially like it when you leave a message.

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Recent Articles

We're familiar with solid-state electronics in biking. Ignition swapped points for transistors in the 1970s, then went digital in the 1990s. Now, the need for greater power, fuel efficiency and emissions control means modern engines only work with computer-controlled fuelling, ignition, combustion and exhaust. When we open the throttle we pull the strings, but the ECU calls the shots. To do it, the ECU needs an accurate view of the world. And it gets it through its sensors.

A gyroscope is a rigid circular or spherical mass rotating around an axis and for over 100 years motorcycles have come with three of them: a front wheel, a rear wheel and a crank (if you're being pedantic you could include cams, balancer shafts, gearbox, clutch etc).
The classic mechanical model of a gyroscope ranges from the very small – electrons spinning around an atom's nucleus – to the very large – the Earth.

Most of us have an innate feel for balancing a high centre of gravity on a relatively short wheelbase. Say, like a motorbike. Its centre of gravity is the point at which the sum of the surrounding mass is zero, and is largely determined by the location of the engine, the heaviest part of the package. Usually the CoG is midway between the wheels (half the wheelbase) and 60 to 75cm off the ground; just above the engine, in front of your knees.
Or at least it is until you get on.

Anyone with fingers knows bikes vibrate, sometimes strongly enough to make picking your nose impossible. But how we perceive vibration depends on its type, pattern, frequency and cause.
Bikes are subject to different types of vibration. A bumpy road creates random forced vibration at medium to high frequency (around 5-35 Hz depending on vehicle speed). It's perceived as unpleasant, as is head buffeting caused by wind turbulence. Engineers and aerodynamicists try to minimise these bad vibrations.
But we usually talk about engine vibration. There are many sources...

From the launch of Yamaha's new Super Ténéré: "The exhaust pipe connection between the two headers is discontinued to give more character to the engine. The link pipe gives a flat feeling to the curve, so removing it makes the engine a bit more peaky."
This is all about exhaust gas. When a four-stroke is tuned for power it means more revs, and so the cylinders have thousandths of second to fill with fresh mixture, compress it, burn it and pump it out again. To get enough mixture in and out, inlet valves open early and exhaust valves stay open for longer – so both are open at the same time.

Written content on this site is copyright Kevin Ash Limited. Images are copyright of the credited photographers and are used with their permission. Feel free to link to this site, with quotes or teasers if you wish, but please do not steal from it. Copying entire features or images for your own site is theft - get in touch instead, maybe I can help.